COLUMBUS, Ohio — With a bill to rescue two Ohio nuclear power plants on the cusp of a key vote, some heavy hitters in state politics have thrown their last-minute weight behind the legislation.
Bob Paduchik, a top Ohio Republican operative who is playing a major role in President Donald Trump’s 2020 election campaign, this week called multiple House Republicans viewed as possible opponents of House Bill 6 encourage their support, according to sources with knowledge of the phone calls.
Others who privately have made calls on the legislation’s behalf are Gov. Mike DeWine, Republican House Speaker Larry Householder, and for Democrats, who generally have been more opposed to the bill, labor groups affiliated with workers at the plants.
A House committee last week voted along party lines to send HB 6 for a vote by the full House, which may happen later Wednesday. If the House were to approve the bill, it would go to the Ohio Senate for further review before heading to DeWine for his signature. The controversial bill, which would raise more than $150 million to subsidize the Davis Besse and Perry nuclear plants, has been the subject of one of the most intense lobbying campaigns in recent Capitol Square memory.
(UPDATE: The House passed HB 6 by a 53-43 margin late Wednesday afternoon.)
Paduchik’s foray into a state-government issue particularly raised eyebrows in Columbus, given his close ties with the White House and the national Republican Party.
But one source said Paduchik’s pitch was focused on policy, including the possible economic impact of closing the plants, rather than politics.
In an interview, Paduchik said he’s advocating for the bill as a private citizen with a personal interest in energy issues, and not on behalf of the White House or for an industry group. Paduchik, who also has longstanding ties to DeWine and Sen. Rob Portman, previously worked at the U.S. Department of Energy and at a national professional association for the coal-fueled power generation industry.
“People ask me for my advice and opinion on things on politics, but they also ask me for my advice and opinion on electricity and power issues,” he said. “Honestly, I think diversity in electricity generation is a strength in this nation, and I’m concerned that we lose that in Ohio if we shut down these two plants.”
On the Democratic side, labor groups affiliated with some workers at the plants have been calling state lawmakers (and some Republicans too), encouraging their support. Some of the same labor groups, like the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, backed Householder’s bid for speaker in January, helping broker the Democratic support that helped him defeat a rival Republican candidate for the job. The IBEW even has sent a national representative to the Statehouse to lobby on behalf of the bill.
“We’ve been down here for the last four or five or six months, explaining to our representatives how important these plants are to us,” said Terry Joyce, the business manager of the Laborers Local 310 in Cleveland, who also serves as president of the Cleveland Building Trades Council, an influential labor group that includes the IBEW Local 38.
Among those who have made calls against the bill is Dave Johnson, an influential Columbiana County Republican Party chairman, who sits on the board for the Ohio Manufacturers Association, which is opposed to the bill. The oil and natural gas industry have joined some business groups and consumer groups in opposition to the bill as well.
“I think in this case, you have people in both parties, who normally are aligned with each other, on both sides of this issue,” said one Republican lobbyist.
House Bill 6 would add a $1 “clean air” fee onto every Ohio customer’s monthly electricity bill, raising $190 million, most or all of which would subsidize the Davis-Besse and Perry nuclear power plants in Northern Ohio, both of which are slated to close soon unless owner FirstEnergy Solutions gets outside financial help. It also would eliminate an existing monthly charge, averaging $4.39 for residential customers, that currently pays for renewable energy projects, and would enshrine in state law an Ohio Supreme Court ruling that the Ohio Valley Electric Corporation could charge its customers up to $2.50 per month – pending approval of state regulators -- to subsidize two OVEC coal-fired power plants -- one in Ohio, the other in Indiana.
Initially some of the clean air fee was to have gone toward renewable energy projects, but House Republicans last week abruptly rewrote the bill to completely shut out renewables from the “clean-air” fund. But the bill was re-written again on Wednesday to make some solar projects eligible for the “clean air” funding.
Cleveland.com reporter Jeremy Pelzer contributed to this story.